Retail stores are turning into e-commerce fulfillment centers

wsj.com

14 pointscdepman2 comments

One of the "Requests for Startups" items for YC is for Brick & Mortar 2.0 [1]. I'm curious to see if retail stores being used as fulfillment centers is a more longterm trend after the virus has been tamed. Where would a startup best fit if this does become a trend.

I know when I'm in the market for a new electronic accessory, I'll often go to Best Buy when I just want to see and feel what I'm shopping for. If I decide in-store that I want to purchase something, I'll scan the barcode on the back and see if it's cheaper elsewhere and many times it is. Is there a want for more showrooms for certain high-priced items, even if they aren't things like mattresses and exercise equipment? Could somewhere like Best Buy exist with a much smaller showroom with a handful of TV's and most of their items in a warehouse?

1: https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/#brick

I used to work for a medium sized retailer. There’s strong market at the subpremium level for multiple fulfillment options such as buy online, pickup in store as well as buy in-store and ship to home. We did indeed undertake a massive project such that most, though not all, physical stores became essentially mini fulfillment centers. The benefit to customers was that they could see a product online and go to a store to try it out. If they liked it but wanted say a different size or color that wasn’t in stock then we could ship from a different store and have it available to them wherever. It was quite interesting project to be sure, but customers reacted very positively.

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